Indiana Coalition for Public Education — Monroe County
  • About Us
    • Mission & Vision
    • Our Beliefs
    • By-Laws
    • Who Is Our Lobbyist
    • Why We Need to Defend Public Education
    • Board Members
    • Friends
    • How You Can Help
  • How to Join
  • Meetings & Events
    • Meetings & Calendar
    • Events
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Press
    • Contact the Press
    • In the News
    • Press Releases
    • Videos
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters

Templeton Parent's Letter Opposing Seven Oaks

5/5/2015

 
The following guest post is from Chris Robb, president of Templeton Elementary's PTO. In it, Chris explains to the Indiana Charter School Board (charter-applications@icsb.in.gov) why he opposes the Seven Oaks charter application. The deadline for public comment is midnight, Tuesday, May 5.

Good afternoon:

My name is Chris Robb. I have a daughter in 2nd grade at Templeton Elementary School in Bloomington. I also serve as president of the school’s Parent Teacher Organization. I have followed the discussion on the Seven Oaks charter applic
ation with great interest. I’m writing to share my concerns over the proposal and explain why I think it’s damaging to our community.

Templeton is a greatly disadvantaged school in terms of it’s student makeup. Over the past decade, the percentage of students receiving free or reduced lunch has grown from 30% to 75% in 2014-15. The school was (unfairly in my opinion) labeled as an “F” school in 2012-13, yet rebounded to an “A” school for the last two years. Our principal, Mr. Carver, has been aggressive in his push to improve the learning experience for the students and lobbied to have Templeton included in the International Baccalaureate pilot that MCCSC is undergoing with Childs Elementary and University Elementary.

I know firsthand that there were many eyebrows raised in the community at Templeton being included with two of Bloomington’s more economically advantaged school districts. However, it gave the students, teachers, and parents something to be proud of. The takeaway here is that the school is doing terrific things with the resources it has available. The teachers and administration both care deeply about the students. Despite their overall economic disadvantage the students have risen to the challenges placed before them.

Templeton is not a unique story in Bloomington. There are many schools with similar compositions that are making great strides every day. I won’t claim that everything is perfect, but things rarely are. In Bloomington, involved parents love their schools and are generally happy with them, despite the letter grade the state assigns them. More importantly, involved parents love the fact that their schools are providing a quality education for all of Bloomington’s youth, regardless of their home situation. We know that an educated citizen is a more engaged citizen. As the recent passage of the school referendum demonstrated, Bloomington values educated students.

I understand that the addition of the Seven Oaks charter school will potentially remove $2.5 million in funding that would otherwise go to the schools I describe above. Make no mistake, this reduction will place an even greater strain on those schools that are struggling to fill the educational gap our disadvantaged students are seeing at home. It’s important that there’s funding for additional reading assistance, after school programs, extracurricular activities and afternoon snacks. Too often, we see the teachers filling that gap through additional hours or money out of their own pockets. Frankly, it’s offensive that we would consider moving even more funding out of a system that is already strained.

Further, I’d expect that the students who would elect to go to Seven Oaks are coming from families that have the time to spend with their kids in the evenings and support their growth at home. This should be evident by the lack of supplied transportation for the students. Low-wage parents that have little schedule flexibility will find themselves challenged to utilize Seven Oaks facilities. This further erodes the shared culture of education at MCCSC's public schools and moves the high-performing and well-supported students into a consolidated location. That may work well for them, but it will hurt those left behind at the struggling schools. The best environment I can envision for my child is one that has an even distribution of student performance. In areas where she needs help, she has her peers to lean on. In areas where she excels, she pushes them.

Templeton’s IB learner profile this month is based around “balance”. The students are learning why it’s important to have “balance" between learning time and fun time, happy time and sad time, active time and resting time. But “balance” is important at a district-wide level, too. Please don’t throw it off by siphoning funding and students into Seven Oaks. I urge you to reject their proposal.

Regards,

Chris Robb
Templeton Elementary Parent
Carla Gardner link
5/6/2015 11:29:49 am

i couldn't agree more

Fawn
5/7/2015 04:27:16 am

Chris, you have so eloquently put into words what is on the minds of many. Thank you. I whole heartedly agree!

Anabel Newman
10/27/2015 02:04:21 pm

A wonderful, necessary recognition of what will happen if we splinter our resources. Thanks, Chris.

Cathy Fuentes-Rohwer
10/27/2015 02:25:41 pm

Remember that Seven Oaks is looking for another (different) charter authorizer. This time it is with Grace College, an evangelical Christian college that might give them a charter. Please speak out against it at the public hearing on November 4th from 5:30 to 7:30pm at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites, 117 S. Franklin Rd. (over by 37). Bring friends. If you can't go (or even if you can), please send your letters to this email address: tjziebarth@grace.edu


Comments are closed.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Categories

    All
    Accountability
    A To F Grades
    Call To Action 2020
    Call To Action 2022
    Cathy's Speeches
    Charter School Program (CSP)
    Charter Schools
    Covid 19
    CRT
    Death By A Thousand Cuts $
    Democracy
    Diploma
    Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs)
    Equity
    Events
    Follow The Money
    Free Lunch
    ILEARN
    IPS
    Kindergarten
    Petitions
    Race/history
    Redistricting
    Referendum Sharing
    Religion
    Reopening
    School Board
    School Choice
    School Marketing
    Special Education
    Statehouse
    Teachers
    Tech Trep
    Testing
    Textbooks
    Vic's Statehouse Notes
    Vouchers
    Year In Review

    Archives

    April 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    February 2014

    Friends

    Vic's Statehouse Notes
    Network for Public Education
    Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • About Us
    • Mission & Vision
    • Our Beliefs
    • By-Laws
    • Who Is Our Lobbyist
    • Why We Need to Defend Public Education
    • Board Members
    • Friends
    • How You Can Help
  • How to Join
  • Meetings & Events
    • Meetings & Calendar
    • Events
  • Podcast
  • Blog
  • Press
    • Contact the Press
    • In the News
    • Press Releases
    • Videos
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters